Teaser trailer for the documentary Gray House, which screened at the BIFF London Film Festival.
This dazzling mix of straight documentary and striking visual art makes for a strangely beautiful cinematic experience. Could it be a portrait of alienated America? You don’t want to know too much about director Austin Lynch and photographer Matthew Booth’s compelling first film before seeing it. It’s a visceral piece, better experienced than described. But here are just a few teasing threads: Denis Lavant (Claire Denis and Leos Carax’s darling actor) opens the film as a lone fisherman on a Texan river. The film then progresses across different spaces, alternating between contemplative sequences and direct interviews. Oil-rig workers and women sentenced to life in prison share their experience on solitude and isolation, while the camera hauntingly lingers on architecture and the stark beauty of nature. Alvin Lucier’s eerie score pulsates and hypnotises.